MSI launches Wind U200 in Taipei

Earlier today at an event in Taipei, Taiwan, MSI unveiled a range of new notebooks, including the Wind U200 which leaked out yesterday. We got some hands on time with the new CULV notebook from MSI and we have to say that the lines between netbooks and notebooks are starting to blur.

For starters, the Wind U200 isn't much bigger than the latest 11.6-inch netbooks at 297x190x31mm (WxDxH) and it weighs in at about 1.4kg, although this with a 3-cell battery and the optional 6-cell unit adds about 200g of weight. At least MSI has gone for a design were it looks like the extended battery will protrude out the back of the notebook, rather than adding a fat lump at the bottom of it. The 12-inch display has a native resolution of 1,366x768 resolution and looked quite bright and nice.

The hardware specifications aren't much to write home about with a CULV Celeron 723 at 1.2GHz, 1GB of RAM as standard and the Intel GS45 chipset with integrated GMA 4500MHD graphics. On top of this you also get a choice of a 160 or 250GB 2.5-inch SATA hard drive depending on the SKU, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0 with EDR, a 1.3Megapixel webcam, an HDMI port, a D-sub connector, three USB 2.0 ports, a mic and headset jack, an Ethernet port (MSI didn't specify the speed) and a 4-in-1 memory card reader.

As you can see from the pictures below, there's also a slot behind the battery for a SIM card for an optional 3G data module, although again, MSI didn't specify which type of support will be offered. The keyboard felt very good, although it was quite bouncy, but MSI will still have a chance to fix this in the production units. No pricing or launch date was mentioned, but the samples at the event seemed to be pre-production.